I Hate These Chains
by AnnaRavenheart
Summary: Slightly AU, set during DH. During the reign of Carrows a lot of bad things happened and Hogwarts has become a dull place. In a times like that, sometimes even the coldest people start to show their best side.


_**I Hate These Chains**_

"Why are you taking me down here? I didn't do anything wrong," Ginny said, raising her chin arrogantly. Amycus looked at her, wondering how this girl could keep her dignity even in times like this.

"You are asking why? Am I right, princess?" His rough voice had a note of sarcasm, a note which Ginny recognized instantly. He was in one of his sadistic moods.

"Yes, you are," she stated, trying to maintain the calmness of her voice, although in her heart of hearts, she knew very well that she is on the verge of breaking apart.

'_I can't afford to be weak. I need to keep going on, for my friends, for my family, for… Harry._' The mere thought of Harry made her heart wince like someone pinned it with a needle. Who knows where is he now? Maybe he is not even alive.

'_He is, he must be. I know it.' _She couldn't explain why, but her hoping heart was sure that he was alive. Maybe he was battered, dirty and bruised, but alive. '_Or else I would feel that something is missing in my heart.'_

The words of her disgusting professor snapped her out of her thoughts. "You wanted to recruit an army and fight against us and our Lord. Brave, very brave."

She flinched as his cold hand clenched hers and forced her to follow him down the dark dungeons.

"But also very stupid." He laughed, and Ginny thought that his laughter sounded more like the growling of some dreadful wolf than normal, cheerful laughter.

"I just fight against wrongdoings," she said, without thinking what his reaction will be. She couldn't think about this now.

"Oh, such a noble little girl," Amycus hissed, suddenly furious as he glared at her." Don't think that nobility will help you here," he said, pointing towards the closest doors.

Ginny's eyes followed his motion. She was unaware until now that they arrived in front of her new home. The filthy dungeon.

"You are going to lock me away like a prisoner?" She snapped, her fiery temper bursting out, despite the fear she felt.

"Well," he said, releasing her hand and wiggling his fingers. "Unless you want to decorate my bed…"

Ginny's mouth opened and she just stared at him, while her mind slowly processed the words she heard.

"Just kidding, like I would want to have something with a filthy Blood Traitor." He grinned, as he took some time to enjoy in his petty insult.

He flicked his wand effortlessly and the door opened slowly. Suddenly he grabbed her hand roughly and pulled her inside.

"Let me go, you filthy pig, how dare you to say something like that!" she screeched, suddenly realizing the weight of his insult. She raised her hands in a desperate attempt to hit his face, but it was in vain. He was stronger than her.

"Nice try," he growled as he pushed her onto the dirty floor.

Before she managed to rise up, he moved out of her reach and closed the heavy door behind him.

"Enjoy during your stay here," he said poisonously. "You and your kind are worse than Mudbloods," Amycus murmured and a moment later, Ginny heard the sound of a door locking.

Thanking her lucky stars that the thug left, Ginny let out an exasperated sigh before she spun around in order to examine the cold room. It was completely empty except for one moth-eaten mattress in the corner.

Ginny clenched her eyelids shut, willing that single tear not to roll slowly down her freckled cheek. Sniffing loudly, she hunched her shoulders and sat in the corner. Her warm eyes were swimming with rage as she recalled everything that happened during the reign of Carrows. Being closed in that filthy room was a horrible thing, yet she knew that her friends received punishments that were not only horrible. Those punishments were simply bestial.

Ginny shuddered at the thought of what they did to her best friend, Neville. She recalled how Amycus Cruciated him. It was a terrible sight to behold. That bastard didn't cease with the curse until Neville became a shrieking mass of tangled limbs on the floor.

She raised her hand and touched the yellowish bruise on her cheek. Alecto really had a heavy hand, despite the fact that she was a female.

The truth was that Ginny often provoked and defied them without thinking about consequences, but she never felt a sting of guilt or pity because of that. She did what was right. She has been raised in a family that maybe was poor, but decent. She has been taught since she was a little child that she shouldn't do and tolerate wrong things. And the reign of those two and their manner of 'educating' were nothing but wrong, utterly wrong.

"Someone will get you for this, you bastards," she swore doggedly.

* * *

"Well, well, look who got a sudden desire to act like a noble knight," Amycus mocked as he tightly held the blonde that followed him quietly. "I knew that you would never be a decent Death Eater, but my Lord never wanted to listen."

The blonde walked without thinking, his free hand in his pocket and his shoulders hunched, his jacket collar whipping his face and his platinum blonde hair wavering in front of his downcast blue eyes. So much to think about many subjects… yet his mind was delightfully blank.

"The glorious reign of Malfoys has gone with the wind, hah," Amycus said happily.

Draco frowned at those words. During the last few months he heard a lot of insults and he was surprised that his hasty nature allowed him to listen to them quietly. It really was a shame. Malfoy, from noble and rich family was sentenced to sit in the filthy cell. '_If someone saw me now, he would definitely think that I'm a Mudblood,'_ he mused, half-angry, half-disenchanted.

He really didn't know what happened to him. Out of nowhere, his mind had suddenly declared that he wants to speak up. _'What the hell happened with me when I decided to say something bad to Alecto? Just like someone Imperiused me. Father is going to kill me,'_ he sighed. Maybe a small piece of humanity inside him wanted to pierce his icy shell.

* * *

'_Why? It is so unfair… It's so… I can't even think of right words,_' Ginny thought as she curled up in the corner of the grim, moldy, dungeon.

She watched the golden light which signaled a new day pour into her prison from the tiny window high on the wall.

Dawn came with mixed feelings for many different people. While she sat there and examined the door for the thousandth time, looking for flaws or weak parts that could help her get out, Carrows were probably enjoying in their warm beds.

They would probably start their morning by cruciating house-elves or performing hexes on poor first years. After all, this was their favorite way to start a new day.

The sound of the door unlocking snapped her out of her thoughts. She raised her head slightly. Her deep-brown eyes narrowed in surprise when she saw a person that entered into the cell. It was none other than Draco Malfoy, youngest Death Eater.

Her usually kind heart filled with hate and disgust when she saw his platinum head.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, austerity etched in her voice.

Draco's heart completely sunk when he heard the familiar voice. Now he was even more embarrassed._ 'Weasel's sister is my cell-mate. Great, this was my biggest wish,' _he mused, his thoughts filled with his usual dose of sarcasm.

"They sent you here to torture me?" Ginny suddenly asked and Draco threw her a confused look.

"No," he replied curtly. At the mere mention of torture his intestines twisted. He was sick of those tortures and he was pretty sure that everyone would be after some torture sessions with the Dark Lord.

"Then why are you here?" she asked again, stubbornly. That was something she inherited from her mother and she was proud of it.

"Look, ginger, it's not my duty to explain anything," he snapped. He was embarrassed enough. It was needless to answer to her questions.

She sighed and stood up. For a moment, she just looked at him. He looked tired and broken. The sight was almost as bad as seeing the pain in Neville's eyes when he was tortured, and she felt her own rage falter.

It was strange to see him like that; he wasn't the kind of person that would look saddened, at least not when his beloved Pureblood thugs were so close to victory.

"If that's what you say," she said, shrugging.

He looked at her and frowned. For a moment he thought that he saw a glimpse of pity in her eyes. Pity was something he definitely wasn't used to, nor he wanted it.

He coughed slightly and straightened his back, trying to look like he was proud of what he had done. "I said to Alecto that if she was any more stupid, we'd have to water her."

Ginny looked at him in confusion, trying to stop the grin which threatened to spread across her face.

'_He said that to Alecto when he was supposed to enjoy in the chaos like Goyle did? The world will surely start to fall apart,'_ she thought to herself.

"Don't tell me that you already grew tired of your Death Eaters?" she asked. Despite the fact that he had said something like that, she still couldn't forget the fact that this arrogant ferret-boy tried to kill Dumbledore and almost killed her brother. He was a Malfoy, and they would never change.

"I didn't," he snapped, like he tried to justify himself. The truth was that he never forgave himself for what he had done. No, he hadn't become a Mudblood-lover, but he was feeling really sorry because of everything since Dumbledore died. The tortures of the Dark Lord stabilized his remorse further, but he wasn't going to confess this to a ginger.

"Then why did they put you here?" she asked, folding her arms over her chest. There was definitively something strange about him, and she wanted to find out what it was. Her curiosity wouldn't allow her to back away.

"I already told you," he replied coldly. "I would be grateful if you wouldn't stick your nose where it doesn't belong."

"I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings. After all, you are surely sad because they grew tired of you. But I understand them. If I was in their place, I wouldn't keep a failure of an assassin," she replied with the same dose of coldness.

"Could you stop with this?" he asked, clenching his fists. He was already feeling bad and it was needless to remind him.

"You shouldn't be bothered by the words of a little traitor. You are above us; you don't have the chains that bind you, like we have."

"Look, you don't know anything about me," he snapped.

Her left eyebrow lifted a fraction.

"I know enough."

"No, you don't. I'm chained just like you, even more. And I hate these chains. I'm tired of everything," he said. He felt like he was going to explode.

Ginny looked at him, a mixture of worry and confusion clearly visible in her eyes. She looked at him while he tried to regain his composure. For the first time she noticed that his face was paler than ever. She also noticed dark lines under his eyes. His entire countenance was dull. Was it possible that he really felt sorry?

"Then why you are doing this? Why do you support them?" Ginny asked and he somehow felt that her words are neither judging nor harsh.

Draco was unable to decide what he should do or say. He didn't trust her, but he needed to say everything that occupied his thoughts. There was no one to understand him, no one except his parents but they were far away from him. He longed for them.

"I have to. I have to or else they are going to kill my mother and father. They are going to kill me," he muttered under breath.

"That's a stupid reason. They could also kill my parents, but I never joined them just to save our lives. I decided to fight," she said, unable to understand.

"You are a Gryffindor, you are brave. I never was. I realize that I was wrong, but it's too late to make everything right. I lost my chance."

She looked at him and she felt her heart filling with sorrow. One thought crossed her mind. Maybe he wasn't so evil, not yet. He needed a helping hand before he sank in the mud of malice. She was confused, unsure what to do. She wasn't as fussy with etiquette as he was, so she was sure that she would do something that would displease him.

"And now I sunk lower than ever, confessing everything to a Blood Traitor," he added.

Ginny smiled. Even at this moment he couldn't get rid of his sarcasm. Maybe that was something she liked about him.

He was still gazing at his own feet when he felt a small, warm hand on his shoulders.

"No, you didn't. This was probably the first correct thing that you did during the past years. Speaking about your emotions is not something shameful, it only proves that you are a normal human being," she spoke softly, hoping that this was the right thing to do.

Draco shot her a confused look. Why was she so kind all of a sudden?

"This is not going to change anything, it wouldn't chase the Carrows away or change the fact that I'm a Death Eater."

"Maybe it can. We can do everything, as long as we have friends and family that care about us. Don't tell me that you wouldn't want to see your family happy and safe?"

He nodded.

"This should motivate you to fight, fight against Carrows and their wrongdoings," she said seriously.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. The Carrows tortured students on a daily basis, they almost killed some of the first years, they were murderers, beasts, and he was really afraid.

"You are not alone, you should know that. There are a lot of us that struggle against them; if you help us we will be even stronger. We can win, I know it," Ginny spoke. She completely believed in her words, her heart told her that she was right. And the human heart is able to feel things that even the brain can't predict.

"We are Dumbledore's army, and we will keep fighting," she added proudly.

He pondered the matter silently. Maybe this was right; maybe he could buy redemption for himself if he fought like a part of Dumbledore's army. Maybe it was the only way to show that he was sorry because his death was Draco's fault.

He threw her another look. Sincerity was twinkling in her eyes and her words sounded like words of a true friend. They weren't sweet like words the Dark Lord said to him, words that had malice hidden underneath their sweetness. Ginny's words were plain yet honest.

She spread her arms and smiled at him. "Friends?" she asked.

"Friends," he exclaimed and hugged her. Strangely enough, he didn't feel ashamed because of that. It wasn't a romantic hug, it was a friendly, comforting one. For a moment, he felt that he was strong enough to fight against Carrows, against the whole world. For the first time he felt hope swelling inside his chest. _'No more chains, torture and reign of terror. No more cowardice. Everything will be right, it must be.'_

* * *

**A/N:** This was my first one-shot! I'm surprised it didn't take me long to finish it. It's written for "Dumbledore's Army competition". If you want, review, I like to know your opinion!


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